Description
The Great Plains region of the United States is home to women from a wide range of cultural backgrounds. Each of these cultural groups embellished their lives with some form of embroidery, from the women of the Native American Plains tribes who created with quillwork and beads to the settlers who brought a variety of embroidery traditions with them to their new homes. Many of these embroideries are now found in history museums but have little information on the maker. Susan Curtis, curator of collections at the Emily Reynolds Historic Costume Collection at North Dakota State University, is working to uncover these anonymous women and bring their history and hand embroidery to light, illustrating the rich tradition of embroidery found in the Great Plains.
Susan Curtis is the curator of collections at the Emily Reynolds Historic Costume Collection at North Dakota State University in Fargo. This collection of over 5,000 objects documents the history of the region through the clothing and textiles made and used by the people who live there. Ms. Curtis earned a masters degree in Museum Studies with a minor in historic textiles from the University of Nebraska and has been working in museums for over twenty years. Her love of embroidery came from her grandmothers, who spent many patient hours teaching her to wield a needle and thread. Ms. Curtis earned a graduate certificate in Women and Gender Studies from NDSU and is currently working towards a PhD in History focusing on women’s embroidery in the Northern Great Plains.
